The vote comes two days after the 900-member transit workers union at BART unanimously voted down the proposed labor pact. The service workers are expected to follow their lead.

BART union officials hope to begin negotiating a new deal as early as Friday. Union leaders still hold out the option of a strike, which would effectively shut down the regional rail system with 350,000 boardings a day.

To the delight of BART management, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger weighed in Tuesday and said he has no intention of imposing a 60-day cooling-off period during which there could be no employee walkouts or management lockouts. The Republican governor said he wants an agreement reached at the bargaining table.

State mediators joined the talks less than a week before the old contracts were set to expire June 30. The deadline was extended to July 9, but no agreement was reached.

Transit worker and service employee union leaders announced an hour before the deadline that they would let their members vote on management's latest proposal, an offer they cast as "not very good." BART's three smaller unions have not yet weighed in publicly.

District officials say the offer would meet their goal of saving $100 million in labor costs over four years and help close a projected $310 million deficit.

The proposal calls for a three-year wage freeze, a small raise of less than 1 percent in the fourth year and $500 lump-sum payments for two years, changes to health and pension benefits, and new work rules giving management more say over staffing.

The unions have put a counteroffer on the table that would extend from five years to 15 years the amount of time it would take a BART employee to be eligible for lifetime health benefits after retirement.

Labor negotiators say the change could save the district $60 million over the next two years and more than $700 million over two decades.

"Our proposal is a sensible solution which calls on both BART workers and BART executives to sacrifice for the long-term sustainability of the system," said Jesse Hunt, president of Amalgamated Transit Workers Union, Local 1555.

District spokesman Linton Johnson said he believes the union proposal would not be allowed under the state pension system in which BART participates. Nonetheless, he said changes to the retirement health plan is an area that management is willing to explore.

"We want them to come back to the negotiating table and agree to a contract that saves the district $100 million," Johnson said.